


Saved by a snake

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, Banter, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, HP Animagus Fest 2021, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, femmeslash, mild Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29597727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Barely a month into her new job at Hogwarts, Poppy Pomfrey spots a kitty in trouble. She rushes to help - but the 'kitty' in question has some opinions on this.
Relationships: Minerva McGonagall/Poppy Pomfrey
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7
Collections: HP Animagus Fest 2021





	Saved by a snake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meandminniemcg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meandminniemcg/gifts).



It was a rather normal autumn night at Hogwarts. Or, so at least Poppy assumed. She hadn’t been often to Hogwarts over the last thirty years, and it had barely been a month since she arrived. But, still, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

The corridors were already turning cold and drafty as outside the walls the weather worsened. Some students sneaked around after curfew. There was a student with a stomach bug. Another one, covered from top to toe in mud, with a broken ankle. Yet another who had eaten far more Pepper Imps than was wise (her robes still smelled vaguely of smoke). Nothing strange there.

Except, having just brought back her last patient to his Ravenclaw dormitory, a distressed miaow in the empty, silent corridor caught her attention. There were barely any cats within the castle; students and staff seemed to prefer owls. And this was a tabby cat, not the caretaker’s calico one. So that was odd.

The tabby cat was precariously perched far above Poppy’s head, on a ridiculously narrow ledge. It was trembling all over, yet still somehow sitting up straight, its little head raised as it looked down upon her. It reminded Poppy of something, but she couldn’t for the life of her think of what. 

The cat’s trouble was clear. It was stuck on the ledge, and shaking from fear or cold, she couldn’t tell from here. Likely both.

Poppy raised her wand. Caring for pets hadn’t been in her job description, but then, so hadn’t been dealing with Hagrid under influence of a stray, rather overpowered Tickling Charm, and that happened not a week ago. And it wasn’t like she minded. 

The cat came gently floating down towards her, and she caught and cradled it in her arms before it could run away. It really was shaking all over, the poor thing.

“Don’t you worry, kitty,” she murmured to the ball of fur in her arms. “You’re safe as can be now; I’m going to look after you.” 

She set a quick pace back to her rooms. 

Poppy stopped mid-step. The weight in her arms had suddenly become much heavier. And larger. And was staring up at her from behind square glasses. 

*** 

With what felt like her last strength, Minerva managed to change back.

It said a lot about Poppy’s ability to deal with surprises that she didn’t jump when she suddenly found a whole human in her arms. Instead, she stood frozen and stared at Minerva for several long moments. 

“Oh. I see.” she then stated, calmly re-adjusted her grip on Minerva, and resumed walking.

Minerva would wrestle herself free, she really would, but she felt weak and lightheaded and too tired to even try.

“Where are you taking me?” Minerva demanded instead.

“To my office.” Poppy answered her, the Cornwall lilt unmistakable in her firm voice. “You show signs of severe distress and I think you have stretched your magic by a lot; I need to make sure you have not hurt yourself. You’re not the youngest anymore, after all.”

Minerva glared up at her. “We were in the same year. Were born in the same year, even-”

“Oh, so you did read my CV?” Poppy cut in dryly. “Doesn’t matter. My point still stands.” 

Minerva intensified her glare (the one that was infamous for making even Albus flinch). Poppy just smirked. 

“Now don’t you try that on me, Min. It just doesn’t work when I feel your elevated heart rate and the tension in your muscles, and hear how shallow your breathing is. I bet you’re feeling awful.” 

“Maybe I’m fine, and are those things just caused by something else.”

“Interesting,” Poppy said, raising one eyebrow. “But attempts at flattery are sadly not going to help you escape my care either.”

Minerva groaned. How the hell did she end up in this situation? Her animagi mentor, a kind 90 year old transfiguration professor at Edinburgh University, never prepared her for this. (He had warned her not to change unsupervised at first, but… well, you hardly get anything ever done if you play it safe all the time.) 

She hadn’t realized how strong Poppy was, carrying Minerva through the corridors seemingly without difficulty. Against her better judgement, she felt herself relaxing into the grip of those muscular, broad arms - offering warmth, promising safety. Damn those Slytherins. Tempting and seductive, the lot of them. Before you knew it, they had themselves wrapped all around you and you couldn’t escape anymore. A true snake’s embrace. But was Poppy an emerald boa, sleek and powerful but unlikely to hurt you, or a lethal anaconda?

“I’m not sure yet what kind of snake you are,” Minerva said before she could think better of it.

Poppy snorted. “Well, I now know that you’re a cute, if rather reckless mini-lion. What do you think I’m going to do, bite your head off?”

“Possibly.”

“I’m a mediwitch.” Poppy briskly stated. “Healing people is what I _do_ , so yes Minerva, I’m going to care for you as well. Ambition just means that I won’t be swayed, and cunning that I won’t shy away from any means to achieve my goals. So biting your head off wouldn’t make sense - I can heal some horrific wounds, but so far I’ve never succeeded in re-attaching a patient’s head.”

Minerva couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You say that like you tried it.”

“I’ve tried a lot of desperate things, trying against hope to save a life,” the other witch said, her voice much more quiet. 

Minerva knew that feeling only too well, having fought in a war. It must be soul-crushing, watching that life slipping away from under your hands, again and again. Was that the reason Poppy had applied for the position at Hogwarts? Accidents and infectious illnesses were plentiful here, but deaths blessedly rare. She rested her head against Poppy’s sturdy shoulder in support.

Maybe it was time to stop making this any more difficult than it needed to be. She sighed. “I surrender myself to your care, then, oh new colleague of mine.”

“Good,” Poppy said, sounding satisfied. 

But dealing with feeling helpless had never been Minerva’s strongest quality, especially not when that feeling was accompanied with confused thoughts. It wasn’t long before it just got too much. 

“Put me down; I can walk there myself.”

Poppy considered this for a while, then nodded. “Fine, you can try to walk,” she said, gently putting Minerva on her feet.

“Thank you so very much.“

Poppy smiled. “Sarcasm it is now? You show a huge range of expression for someone who was a trembling kitty just ten minutes ago.” she said.

Minerva was too busy staying upright on her wobbly legs to think of a reply. Poppy might have been right after all. Bugger. 

The mediwitch transfigured a lantern from the wall into a simple cane and offered it to her. Minerva gratefully accepted it. With the cane in one arm and Poppy’s arm in the other, the two of them made their way to the hospital wing, a comfortable silence between them now. 

Not much later, Minerva was seated in a squishy armchair before the fireplace, wrapped in a green woolen blanket. Poppy was busy around her; lighting the fire, boiling water, moving glasses around. Minerva couldn’t keep her eyes off her. Poppy’s face was round; there were pleasant little wrinkles around her brown eyes; her black hair hung over one shoulder in a long, thick braid. She was dressed in sensible robes, dark blue, with lots of pockets. What did she remember about Poppy Pomfrey? Great in potions and herbology. Obviously. Terrible in History. Always kept out of trouble. She had seemed unremarkable to her rather more brazen younger self, but clearly that had been a mistake on Minerva’s part.

Poppy knelt before her and Minerva hoped her feelings weren’t too obvious on her face. 

“I’m going to run a few quick tests on you, Minerva.” she said, and proceeded to feel her wrist, her neck, her forehead, murmuring under her breath, while Minerva tried to not lean into the touch. Better to not behave like a kitten begging to be petted. Poppy would certainly laugh at her. (Part of her said it might be worth it, though).

Poppy sat back on her heels as she seriously looked at Minerva.

“Right. Your system is rather shaken up by stress and exertion. Your temperature is too low, and your heart rate and oxygen saturation aren’t at normal levels. But luckily there’s nothing a few potions and some days of rest can’t fix. I want you to drink what I give you, and not do complex incantations or sports for a few days. If you feel worse however - call for me at once.”

Minerva nodded, “I promise.” 

Poppy smiled at her, wide and wonderful, and that was somehow just as warming as the fire and the blanket.

The mediwitch stood and walked to a tall cabinet, taking a few jars and bottles out. “I’m impressed by the way, Minerva,” she said. “That was wonderfully advanced transfiguration; I could never. There’s only - how many animagi are registered? Ten?” 

“I’m the sixth alive in Britain.” Minerva replied, smiling. She really was proud of her achievement, even if this whole situation was rather embarrassing - but not without its merits, apparently. 

“So what went wrong? Please tell me you weren’t chasing a mouse.”

Minerva pulled a face. “It was a spider.”

Poppy turned around, looking far too amused. “You were chasing a spider?”

Minerva laughed. “No, no. I was testing my abilities in my animal form - how well I could run, jump, climb. But then a spider crawled right in front of me, and of course from my new perspective it looked enormous. The next moment I knew I found myself high up that ledge. I didn’t even know how I got up there, and certainly didn’t know how to get off. And it was too narrow to turn back.”

“So you waited.”

“I waited.”

“For how long?”

“I had no way to tell. I tried some nonverbal magic, but don’t think anything worked in my animal form. I got cold, and scared.” Minerva looked down at her hands. They were still trembling. 

Poppy appeared in front of her. “Drink this,” she said, giving her a large glass of purple fluid. “You’ll feel better.” Minerva breathed in the lavender-mint scent of Calming Draught, the spicy tang of ginger, something bitter, and other things she didn’t know. Definitely a lot of sugar, though. When she raised the glass to her lips, Minerva realized the mediwitch already had her full trust. When exactly had that happened?

Her head cleared a little as a comforting warmth settled in her core, then slowly spread through her entire body. She hadn’t noticed how much tension there was in her chest and limbs until it eased somewhat. 

After she’d drank it all, Poppy handed her a large mug of tea, and Minerva gratefully cradled it in her hands. She sipped the chamomile as she searched for the right words. “You know, Poppy,” she finally said, slowly, “that I was really happy to see you?” 

“You didn’t seem too pleased, though, when you changed back.” Poppy grinned as she also poured herself a mug of tea and sat on the sofa, within touching distance of Minerva. 

Minerva shook her head. “I’m sorry I was being so ungrateful.” After a moment of silence, she softly added, “I just hadn’t expected to be carried away by such a formidable woman. It threw me off.”

Poppy looked intensely at her, and there was so much tenderness in her gaze that Minerva’s breath caught in her throat. “You’re my patient right now, Minerva,” Poppy said, just as softly, “and you need time to rest and heal. But - later - I would be very glad to receive you in my rooms again. My private rooms, to be perfectly clear.”

Minerva reached over for Poppy’s hand, and their fingers intertwined.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This work is part of the HP Animagus Fest. 🐾
> 
> Please show our content creators love and support by giving them kudos 💕 and comments 💌 on their work!
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